A woman has opened up about her stage 4 bowel cancer and the four subtle symptoms she experienced leading up to her diagnosis.
According to Cancer Research UK, one in 20 women and one in 17 men will be diagnosed with bowel cancer in their lifetime, with 54 percent of bowel cancer diagnosis being preventable.
The cancer type can be particularly tricky to diagnose due to its symptoms appearing similar to conditions such as IBS.
For Ellie Wilcock, had she recognised the symptoms she was experiencing, specifically one of them, she may have been diagnosed sooner.
Advert
Pain
Ellie shared via a TikTok video her symptoms.
For her, pain was something she dismissed as a possible urinary tract infection (UTI) which had spread to her kidneys as the pain wrapped around her front and back section.
She explained: "Number one was pain in the left-hand side of my tummy and my pelvis.
"But all of my infection markers were coming back clear, so I didn't have an infection in my body, which is why I went for further tests."
Fatigue
"Number two was fatigue," Ellie continued. "So normally I would get up, go to work, come home, then maybe go to the gym or cook dinner or see a friend. But I was basically getting home from work and falling asleep for the rest of the evening."
The NHS lists fatigue as a main symptom of cancer, as ‘feeling very tired for no reason’ can be a sign that something is amiss within the body.
Changes to toilet habits
For Ellie, she didn’t know what she was looking for, but it was a major sign that was indicating her cancer diagnosis.
She shared: "Number three was one I didn't notice but one in hindsight that I probably had, [it] was a change in my bowel habits and blood in my poo. So this is one to really keep an eye on."
As she wishes she’d spotted this as an issue sooner, she urged others to not take blood in their stool lightly.
The NHS states that it’s ‘changes in your poo, such as having softer poo, diarrhoea or constipation that is not usual for you, needing to poo more or less often than usual for you, blood in your poo, which may look red or black, bleeding from your bottom and often feeling like you need to poo, even if you've just been to the toilet’ which are the symptoms.
'Tummy pain, a lump in your tummy’ and ‘bloating’ are also indicators of the disease.
The woman explained that had she known that this was a sign, she may have been diagnosed earlier than stage 4.
She listed the NHS signs regarding stool to look out for includes having diarrhoea, constipation, softer poo, blood in the stool and frequently needing to go.
Ellie said: "Check your poo. I'm such an advocate for that.”
Weight loss and/or changes to your appetite
Ellie went on to share that her fourth symptom was a ‘lack of appetite’.
She explained: "On official symptoms, this goes down as an unexplained weight loss. For me, I wasn't actually losing weight because the lack of appetite was quite infrequent. Most of the time, my appetite was fine.
"But in hindsight I remember having, like, nausea and not wanting to eat as much, because my bowel obviously wasn't normal."
If you’ve been experiencing any of the above symptoms or believe these symptoms could relate to you, speak to your GP.
Britt Jones